1. Field of the Invention
This invention resides in the area of devices for removing ticks from people and animals and more particularly relates to a device having a casing with a V-shaped alignment guide extending to a slot for engaging a tick within the slot and a heating element in close proximity to the tick for heating the tick to cause it to release its grip whereupon the tick can be removed, such heating element in one embodiment providing illumination when the device is alternately used as a flashlight.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Hand-held devices with tweezer-like arms for removing ticks are well known in the prior art. U.S. Pat. No. 5,556,563 by the present inventor discloses a device having first and second tweezer arms disposed within a casing with the tweezer arms extendible through the casing to grasp a tick. Other examples include U.S. Pat. No. 4,213,460 to Weiner describing forceps with an electrical current passing therethrough to provide heat, with the forceps having oppositely-aligned, cup-shaped members to surround and remove a tick. U.S. Pat. No. 4,979,771 to Childs, III also describes the use of cup members at the end of tweezer-like elements to surround a tick. U.S. Pat. No. 5,276,306 to Huffman teaches the use of a heated needle which, when poked into a tick, causes the tick to release its grip, and the tick can then be scooped off the skin by a spoon member disposed below the needle. A disadvantage of these tweezer-like gripping devices is their difficulty of use, as manipulating a device to grip a tiny tick requires a level of dexterity sometimes not possessed by the users of such devices.
Butler, U.S. Pat. No. 5,116,347 teaches a pair of pliers having two opposed jaws, convexly shaped in cross-section, which in use are closed around the head of a tick passing under its body with the jaws to close 0.006 inch apart so as not to snip off and leave the tick's head in the host's body. This device, though, due to its large jaw size and the closing movement, is difficult to align around a tick and keep the tick centered at the place where the jaws are to come together. A further problem with the Butler device seems to arise from the high degree of precision required in manufacturing the jaws of such a pliers-type tool. Examples of such devices tried by Applicant had their jaws come completely together in normal operation, leaving no space therebetween. Thus in practice the jaws of such devices would snip off a tick's head and not work as described in the Butler patent.
Another prior art patent is Thibeault, U.S. Pat. No. 5,554,161 which teaches away from pliers-type tools. It uses a V-shaped slit in the side of a spoon-shaped member and a second spoon-shaped member that rotates thereover but does not completely overlap and close the slit so as to capture a tick therebetween. The spoon members can be spring-loaded so as to close laterally around the tick quickly and easily. However, the need for lateral alignment of the moving parts of the device can complicate the process, making it difficult for some people to properly align and successfully use the Thibeault device.